**Daily Recap — November 8th**

Happy Election Victory Anniversary!

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This is a collection of analyses for events in today’s news. Its not typically written for this format, but as as way of testing the viability of mobile access to large posts on this site, we’re giving it a go. This will not be a regular feature on Real News Revolt, as future stories will be written and published seperately. They’ll also be equipped with nifty things like italics and bold lettering that writers appreciate. Hope you enjoy this for now, though! Let’s talk about the news like a bunch of damn nerds.

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—**— A TRULY REMARKABLE VISIT:

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In one of the easiest “I told you so’s” in recorded history, I asked readers on my main timeline a simple question: would China disrespect PDT upon his arrival to their country in the same fashion they did Barry? I offered to bet otherwise anyone who thought they would, for which there were (predictably) no takers. Liberals rarely put their money where their mouths are.

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And boy, it was a smart move on their part.

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That China would show PDT a great deal more respect than Barry was beyond question. I mean, it’s a pretty low bar, after all. The Chinese literally forced Barry to exit from the butt of Air Force One as a result of their refusal to bring him a staircase. To add insult to injury, they brought staircases to every other world leader —no matter how small their stature on the world stage— complete with red carpet. It truly was an embarrassing day for the presidency and our country.

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Today could not have been more opposite.

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China’s ambassador to the US, Pork Lo Mein, called PDT’s visit a “State visit-plus.” And that “plus” is a doozy.PDT received an honor in Beijing not granted to *any* US President since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (modern China): official dinner inside the Forbidden City.

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The Forbidden City is named such because it has traditionally served as home to the palaces of Emperors and their powerful families who were deemed too good to live among the unwashed masses. Unauthorized entry into its grounds is tantamount to a death sentence. Originally constructed in the early 1400s, the Forbidden City is considered to be among the most important architectural and cultural monuments inside China. Designed to reflect the majesty of the emperor, the vast WALLED complex consists of over 90 palaces and courtyards of varying significance.

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When PDT and our gorgeous, elegant First Lady Melania landed in Beijing today, rather than being left without stairs and lectured on the runway about how “this isn’t their country”, President Ping Pong Table and his wife, MSG-Free Soy, personally took them for a tour of the Forbidden City. The couples then dined in Jianfu Palace, although the exact location of the dinner hasn’t been confirmed. The building dates back to the eighteenth century and was fully restored in 2005 making it one of the most well-preserved parts of the palace complex. Although Barry was given a standard tourist walk-around of the city back in ’09, PDT is the first American president to come anywhere near the Jianfu Palace. Not even Nixon was given that honor, and he’s the guy who opened relations with China in the first place.

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In short: China literally treated PDT like an emperor today.

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Ok, so now that the pomp, circumstance and abject humiliation of Barack Obama are out of the way, let’s get to the real story: why he’s being given the emperor treatment in the first place. Well, the first answer is simple: respect. The US/China relationship is nuanced and reciprocal in many ways, but China is no different than any other country in that they respect those who command it and disrespect those who don’t. It really is that simple.

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That being said, they’re also trying to help themselves.

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And they should, of course. All nations should look after their own interests. But we must remember this basic fact lest we allow the beauty of red carpets and glorious sounds of orchestras make us forget the issues. And there are two main issues that will dominate the conversation within the Forbidden City: North Korea and trade, in that order.

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I’ll try to cover these issues individually, but it’s a virtually impossible task, given that the two have become intertwined since PDT took office. The reason being, PDT is a business man who understands how to use leverage, and some of his best leverage with the North Korea problem relates to trade. All the same, we’ll take them one at a time.

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TRADE:

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PDT has ratcheted up his criticism of China’s massive trade surplus with us – calling it “embarrassing” and “horrible” last week – and has accused Beijing of unfair trade practices, causing some of the more panicky among us to worry about increased tension between the world’s two largest trading countries, the worst case scenario of course being a trade war.

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For its part, China says U.S. restrictions on Chinese investments within our country and on high-tech exports need to be addressed. For anyone following how China has behaved over the last decade, that they would even gripe about anything regarding the tech industry is a joke. The fact is they’re the largest thieves of intellectual property on the world stage, and we’re their main victim.

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You know how we have a patent system here in America, where a person comes with an invention and then registers it so no one can steal their idea? There is an international version of that, but it may as well be non-existent. China routinely steals out technology, especially things related to phones and computers, and creates cheap knockoffs almost immediately. Without American innovation, China wouldn’t even have a tech market. Much of the world wouldn’t, actually. Innovation is a byproduct of the free market. Too bad socialists can’t get that through their heads.

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Anyway, a crackdown on this type of intellectual theft by itself is a massive form of economic leverage, which is likely why China is attacking us from the high tech angle. You know how people accuse others of things that are related to things that they, themselves are guilty of in order to deflect attention away from their deeds? You know, like the Democrats with Russia? This is kind of like that.

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There isn’t much media coverage on this aspect of our trade talks, but there should be. Then again, that’s partly because PDT has backed off from pushing the issue too hard, mostly because of North Korea. That can be said of the majority of our trade issues with China, actually. PDT hasn’t forgotten about many of the issues he has with China —and has said as much recently— but he’s not going scorched Earth on issues such as this when there is an actual scorched Earth we’re trying to prevent.

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We’ll know a lot more about trade talks in the next couple days when multinational deals are announced/discussed. Roughly $250 billion in deals with U.S. companies are expected to be announced during the visit, with several corporate CEOs in Beijing as part of a delegation led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Not a bad day’s haul, huh.

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NORTH KOREA:

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This is the biggie. Pretty much everything going on with Trump in China right now revolves around the North Korea threat. Actually, the majority of his entire Asian trip revolves around North Korea.

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That’s not to marginalize the bigger picture, though, because the alliances we form/strengthen over these next couple weeks could go a long way to shaping a new world order for decades to come. Yes, I said new world order. And no, I don’t mean PDT is sending chem trails over your house to turn your frogs gay. It refers the power structure of the world and how it operates. It shifts every so often based on economic and military might, along with make-or-break decisions by world leaders.

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For example, Barry affected the world order in an extremely adverse way. His weakness emboldened our enemies and alienated our allies. The power structure of the Middle East, for example, was shifted away from Israel and toward Iran due to Obama’s policies, hence why the Saudis are kissing our rears so hard right now. So when you hear me use terms like “new world order,” that’s to what I’m referring.

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Now, the key word for our talks with Ping Pong regarding Rocket Man is the same as the one for trade: leverage. Everything leading up the China leg of the Asia trip has been designed to increase our leverage against China in this regard, actually. The first and most glaring example of this, as I discussed in yesterday’s recap, is Japan.

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The Japanese and Chinese have been enemies historically, engaging in some of the most depraved, barbaric warfare in human history. That’s but a side note to the larger point here, though, which is that China has enjoyed the castration we performed on Japan post-World War II. I won’t repeat the long diatribe I typed out last night, but suffice it to say, Japan hasn’t been able to field any sort of real threat military-wise and China has taken full advantage to make themselves a prominent world power. They’re in danger of losing that luxury, as PDT has announced that not only is he arming Japan, he’s gonna make the good ole US of A some manufacturing cash in the process. Just as China has enjoyed having North Korea as a thorn in our side, Japan has the potential of becoming a similar nuisance to our Chinese friends.

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Japan is but one part of this strategy, though.

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PDT has already successfully wrested the p*ssy South Korea leader from Chinese influence by getting their president to reverse his decision on missile defense, which he’d previously made to appease the Chinese. Ping Pong wasn’t too happy about that one.

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He’s not gonna be stoked about this next move, either.

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As we discussed previously, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is another guy who has essentially allowed himself to become an arm of the Chinese government. This problem grew exponentially over the past several years as Duterte was openly hostile toward the United States, or more specifically, Barry Obama.

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The Philippines have been strategically important to us in the past due to their geographical location in the Pacific, allowing our forces a contingency area from which to train and launch attacks against folks like China if the situation, God forbid, became necessary. They were an important battlefield in WWII as well, where our alliance was really formed. Their vicinity to North Korea is (obviously) something that warrants our attention as well.

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The modern age has ushered in a whole new set of mutual interests between ourselves and the Philippines, most notably the global war on terror. Over the last few years, ISIS has established a stronghold in certain areas in the Philippines to the point that Duterte has enacted martial law. Given our history, one would think that the United States would be the first people Duterte turned to in his fight against jihadists.

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Wrong.

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He actually turned to Russia for material support against ISIS while calling Obama a “son of a wh*re,” which just happens to be true. Barry’s mom got passed around from commie to commie during his entire childhood. Hey folks, just telling you like it is. But getting back on topic, this shift in alliance was very significant to the world order.

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Not only had we lost a very advantageous strategic location for operations in that area of the world, the Philippines became closer to China and Russia than us. PDT recognized the significance of this from the beginning of his presidency, which is why Duterte was among the first world leaders he personally reached out to. Evidently, PDT turned on the old charm because Duterte is now inviting him for a visit and giving him candid advice regarding Rocket Man.

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Don’t get me wrong, folks, Duterte is no Boy Scout. He’s a rough man. But he also has some very rough issues to deal with. Regardless of his moral stature, though, his newfound admiration for our new president could be very beneficial to us as we attempt to assemble a coalition as leverage against China. If Hillary has been elected, Duterte would have been firmly in Putin and Ping Pong’s back pocket. But she wasn’t, and now the Philippines are finding their way back into our corner.

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Happy November 8th!

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The final piece of this puzzle is Vietnam. Like the Philippines, taken alone it’s not a massive country with huge influence. As part of a budding coalition, though, it could be very important. It’s a convoluted issue and one that certainly isn’t within my field of expertise, but I can give you the basic gist of why we’re courting Vietnam on this trip: competition with China.

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Remember, we’re discussing the issues on the table between PDT and Ping Pong, and how we’re trying to use leverage to see our ends met. Over the last decade, we’ve been doing more and more business with Vietnam; business that had been previously done with China. Vietnam is PDT’s way of saying to China,“you’re not the only place on Earth who makes cheap crap.”

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Of course, the volume of trade we conduct with Vietnam could not offset that which would be lost with China were trade relations with them to be severed, but it wouldn’t need to. It’s merely a way of showing that the hits we would take on Main St. with price hikes on many everyday goods could be mitigated and eventually overcome with increased trade with countries like Vietnam.

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Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam. Those are the non-Chinese countries we’re visiting on this Asia trip, and none of them are by accident. And while none of them are overly powerful on their own, they have the power to shape China’s behavior and denuclearize North Korea if PDT plays them properly. I know it’s a lot of information and I hope I’ve done a good job explaining how it all fits together. If not, feel free to ask in the comment section and I will do my best to expound further.

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It’s far too early to say what kind of success our strategy is having thus far, but I see what PDT is doing and I think it’s brilliant. One thing is for sure: we now have a president who understands power and how to use it. That’s an invaluable skill that we would be at sea without.

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Thank GOD it’s PDT on this trip brokering power and forming alliances rather than Hillary or some RINO. I don’t even want to think of what kind of shape we’d be in.

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Count your blessings.

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—**— RAND PAUL UPDATE:

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The curious case of Rand Paul continues to be, well, curious.

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The only facts we’re learning are the specific injuries suffered by Paul in the attack, which is described as a “tackle” from his neighbor. In terms of the circumstances surrounding the incident, the best information I can find is a rumor mill report in the failing New York Times saying the dispute stemmed from a “landscaping argument.”

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Hey, some people take that “lawn of the year” competition seriously.

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Sen. Paul took to twitter to inform his supporters and bewildered lookers-on about the latest developments with his condition:

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“I appreciate all of the support from everyone,” Paul tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “A medical update: final report indicates six broken ribs & new X-ray shows a pleural effusion.”

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For non-doctors like myself, pleural effusion “is the build-up of excess fluid between the layers of the pleura outside the lungs.” As I said, I’m not doctor, but when it seems to me that it takes a pretty solid ass whoopin to get fluid outside the lungs, never mind the broken ribs.

The neighbor who tackled Paul, 59-year-old Rene Boucher, has been charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and was released from jail on a $7,500 bond.

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According to the police report, “the victim, Rand Paul, told police that his neighbor came onto his property and tackled him from behind, forcing him to the ground and causing pain.” The report also said “the defendant admitted going onto Paul’s property and tackling him.”

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So what we know is this Boucher guy was the one going after Paul, on Paul’s property no less, and the only information we have as to the reasons why are unsubstantiated claims of a “landscaping dispute” in the failing New York Times. This whole thing is so weird. Boucher’s lawyer, Matthew J. Baker, said this week that despite Boucher being a Democrat, the “very regrettable dispute” didn’t have anything to do with politics. He released the following statement:

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“The unfortunate occurrence of November 3rd has absolutely nothing to do with either’s politics or political agendas,” Baker said. “It was a very regrettable dispute between two neighbors over a matter that most people would regard as trivial. We sincerely hope that Senator Paul is doing well and that these two gentlemen can get back to being neighbors as quickly as possible.”

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Look, I’m not saying there is some grand secret being kept from the public here. My question is, why be so secretive over such a “trivial matter.” Even if it is something to do with landscaping, which is perfectly possible, legalities wouldn’t preclude either side from at least acknowledging that. In other words, I know that it’s smart for people to keep their mouths shut when possible civil/criminal matters are pending, but it wouldn’t hurt either party to come out and flatly say “the matter deals with my lawn,” or whatever else.

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All this is going to do is spawn rumors of Paul banging Boucher’s wife. Frankly, when I read that Boucher had stormed onto Paul’s property and broke several of his ribs, that was my first thought. Neighborly disputes can get pretty heated, even over shrubs, but for a man to rush in a bull like that, women tend to be involved. I tend to believe that if this really were extramarital in nature, though, word of it would have leaked by now. This probably is some sort of stupid argument that reached a tipping point, but Sen. Paul isn’t doing himself any favors by keeping things under wraps. Yes, everyone deserves privacy, but police reports are public record and Paul himself is a public figure.

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Come on Rand. Just come out and say what the hell happened, already. You’re still going to be short either way.

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—**— APOCALYPSE IN VIRGINIA:

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That headline is tongue in cheek, of course, but to read some areas on the internet you’d think that’s exactly what happened last night. Calm down, everyone, the world continues to spin.

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I’m gonna go down and address the main two talking points that are being bandied about.

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THE COOCHIE CAP REVOLUTION:

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Was last night good for Republicans? Of course not. Democrats picked up 14 seats in the Virginia Statehouse, giving them a near-majority (we’re still awaiting a couple results last I checked) and, consequently, more power over the state legislature. However, the idea that this was an unprecedented and completely unexpected tsunami is simply not grounded in fact.

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Demographics have been steadily changing in VA over the last decade and voting trends have been changing along with them. It may be uncomfortable to talk about race, but the fact is that it matters in politics. Whites have become a minority in many of Virginia’s most populous areas, and even many of the areas who remain predominantly white are DC suburbs who rely on the swamp for their livelihoods. Bureaucrats don’t like Trump. Period. So while we should definitely do serious examination on the seats that flipped and adjust accordingly, let’s not pretend that these were firmly red seats before a mythical blue wave came along to take them. This change has been happening steadily for years. Let’s also not pretend that this is some sort of ahistorical event. The last five presidents have seen their parties lose power immediately following their elections. It’s a trend as old as American politics itself.

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GILLESPIE’S LOSS WAS A REBUKE OF TRUMP:

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This is probably the most wishful of the wishful thinking on display by the clitoral crew. Gillespie did attempt to adopt parts of Trump’s platform in the latter stages of the campaign, mainly the anti-MS-13 aspect, but the idea of Gillespie being a Trumper is laughable. He’s been an open borders RINO for the entirety of his political career, which is probably the only kind of Republican you’ll ever see run in VA now thanks to immigration. His main asset on the campaign trail was GW Bush. The extent of Trump’s involvement with the Gillespie campaign was a couple tweets saying he would be tougher on crime than Northam. No, this was not some harbinger of a national backlash against Trump. It could just as easily be seen as confirmation that the GOP better stop running RINOs, which I can guarantee you will be Steve Bannon’s message coming out of this.

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BOTTOM LINE:

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Virginia voted for Hillzdawg by five points in 2016, and it backed Barry twice as well. All the other headline-grabbers of New Jersey, Washington State’s 45th Senate district, New York’s Westchester and Nassau counties and Maine are generally even more Democratic-leaning.

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The big surprise of the night was the huge Democrat surge in Virginia’s House of Delegates, but that also came in Clinton Country. Of the 16 districts where Democrats currently lead in Virginia, Hillzdawg won 15 of them and received 49.7 percent of the vote in the other. Twelve of those 15 districts voted for Hillzdawg by at least five points.

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Don’t get comfortable, though. Just because last night’s victories came in states or districts won by Hillzdawg doesn’t mean they can be dismissed. College-educated white voters, paired with nonwhite voters, could profoundly endanger the GOP in traditionally Republican, upscale districts.

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Up until the polls closed in Virginia, it was reasonable to suppose that Hillzdawg’s performance represented something of a ceiling for Democrats in well-educated areas. It would be easy, the theory went, for Republican voters to distinguish their longtime Republican representatives from PDT. Jon Ossoff’s failure to outdo Hillzdawg in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District seemed fully consistent with that possibility.

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But well-educated voters in Virginia didn’t appear to make any distinction between PDT and their incumbent representatives. Ed Gillespie, who was thought to have run a pretty strong campaign for governor against Ralph S. Northam, wound up running well behind Mr. Trump in many well-educated suburbs, a possibility that few imagined heading into the contest. Yes, Trump did better with the wine and cheese crowd than Gillespie did. It surprised me too.

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The catch, though, is that the overwhelming Democratic strength in well-educated areas did not cross the political divides of the 2016 election and reach into white working-class areas. In fact, Northam, a Virginia Military Institute graduate with a strong Southern pedigree, didn’t even come close to matching Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Barry or Creepy Tim Kaine in rural western Virginia. Democratic State Assembly candidates didn’t run well ahead of Hillzdawg, either.

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Yes, the political divisions of the 2016 presidential election wound up working pretty well for Democrats in Virginia, astate dense with the highly-educated demographic that PDT tends to struggle with. But that might not be the case for Democrats in a lot of the rest of the country. There are only 11 Republican-held congressional districts in the United States where Hillzdawg won by five points or more. Even if Democrats swept those 11 districts, it wouldn’t get them that far toward the 24 seats they need to flip the House.

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To my surprise, it’s not obvious that a rerun of the Virginia House of Delegates election on a national scale would yield Democratic control of the House. Without greater strength in areas that supported Trump, it would still be a tossup.

The worst news for Republicans is that Democrats did run well ahead of Hillzdawg in white working-class areas during this spring’s special congressional elections. And on Tuesday, Northam ran ahead of her in some of those areas, too, even if he landed short of prior Democratic benchmarks. It’s that white working class that we must maintain a stranglehold on in order to keep the coochie cappers screaming at the sky. If they continue to make inroads with that demographic, we’ll have a real fight on our hands.

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The big question in 2018 might prove to be whether Democrats can have it all: Will it be possible to combine a Virginia-like near sweep of Republicans in Clinton districts with a broad Democratic over-performance in white working-class districts? If they can do both, they will be favored to retake the House. One or the other would probably make the fight for House control a tossup. Chances are, that won’t happen.

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But that doesn’t mean it won’t. However, there is a lot to happen still in the next year. Continued economic growth will be a huge factor in how people vote in 2018. We also need some legislative victories, especially regarding tax reform that will work for that working class that we need so desperately to maintain. The other biggie is immigration. If PDT #BuildsThatWall, his base will be amped like never before and the enthusiasm gap we suffered last night will evaporate instantly.

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Last night wasn’t good, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

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Everyone take a breath. There is a lot yet to happen.

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There it is, homeskillet. You know the drill: questions, comments, concerns, memes, insults, compliments, stickers, jokes, emojis and, if we have time, complaints.